Monthly Archives: August 2010

There have been several posts here about independence for Scotland but I would like to draw your attention to a few blogs which are currently holding interesting debates –NewsnetScotland, BellaCaledonia and Scotland Unspun.

At last it seems the SNP are awaking to the fact that an election is only 9 months away and Alex Salmond has decided to put independence top of the SNP campaign agenda. Not before time. They need to get ahead instead of allowing Labour to set the course. Often in the past Alex Salmond’s party has been caught trying to deny Labour’s accusations but to little effect. They’ve allowed Labour to ‘get in first’ and spent campaigns attempting to play catch up.

One lie churned out by unionists won’t be heard during the next months – “We can’t rely on North Sea gas much longer”. How often has that been said in the past years by those who want to enhance the myth that England subsidises us? Although this is the second giant find in just a week there is talk, in oil circles, that more are expected. Surely Scotland isn’t going to let our oil go to London without insisting we get our share of the spoils. As Alex Porter writes, we need to emulate Norway, not Australia.

I have hopes of an election campaign focused upon independence, oil and the fact the Westminster coalition has no mandate to govern in Scotland. The ‘respect’ agenda lasted all of around 48 hours so we’ve nothing to lose. Let’s go for it.

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Boris Johnsonis apparently threatening to quit as London Mayor if cuts to London’s transport budget go ahead. No link – it’s in the Sunday Times. A senior Labour source said: “After Condi Rice met Gordon for the first time she complained to the White House about the way he behaved. No 10 suddenly starting getting these messages from the White House that there were grave doubts about the desirability of Gordon taking over. It wasn’t just the White House either, it was other people based in the US, business leaders, people like that.”The culling of the SAS It is understood that the cut was decided several months ago, by the former government, and is not part of the current defence review, which in itself could result in further cutbacks. “I’d be astonished if Liam Fox is even aware of this, ” said an ‘insider’.EU FBI-style police force here within 10yrs Tory MP and security expert Patrick Mercer last night agreed with the need for a unified force. “If that means a loss of sovereignty, then so be it because in this case I do think it’s a good thing.” NHS secret cancer pay-outs An investigation has uncovered critical errors and secret payments of thousands of pounds to patients who were harmed as a result of incorrect diagnoses. Asil Nadir: opportunist Donations to the Tories are in the spotlight again.The sparring Milibands: here and hereNew rules for travellers’ sites The Labour government ploughed £97million into a programme begun in 2008 in a bid to increase the number of gypsy sites. It set councils targets, often forcing them to build on green field sites or compulsorily purchase land in the teeth of local opposition.It’s just not cricket: It’s alleged that some members of the Pakistani team were involved in cheating during the Lord’s Test. The NotW claims it gave £150,000 to a middleman who promised to arrange for Pakistani players to bowl “no balls” during the match.Parental consent not needed: Family rights campaigners have called for a change in the law after it was revealed that girls as young as 12 can be given the cervical cancer vaccine without their parents’ consent. Doctors and nurses have been told they are under no legal obligation to seek the permission of the parent or guardian.The secret service must not be so…er…secret [Demos] warns of the dangers posed by conspiracy theories – from hindering counter-terrorism work by reducing public trust in the Government, to encouraging new alliances between extremists based on such theories – and recommends the Government fight back by infiltrating internet sites to dispute these theories. EU says fake goods are fine Looky-looky: a report disputes claims that the counterfeiting of luxury brands is funding terrorism and organised crime and argues there is little public appetite for tough law enforcement measures as consumers enjoy the bargains offered by the illegal trade, which has been estimated to be worth £1.3 billion in the UK.The BBC is on a warning The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has warned the BBC that it faces making deeper cuts and refused to rule out a reduction the licence fee. Same story, different perspective here.The Blairs house-hunt in Barbados “He told me he is a great admirer of our state education system and he would have liked his [four] children to have gone to school in Barbados,” said one islander… The Blairs are also said to like the weather, the beaches, the low crime rate, the stylish restaurants and the laid-back lifestyle of the island in which celebrities are generally left alone by the local population.

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>I’m not sure how much credence I can give to this report in the DT. Anyone who’s been following the news about the UAF and the EDL will know that the UAF has *always* initiated the violence and have had more protesters arrested and charged than the EDL.

It won’t do any good. Millions of Brits aren’t going to join the EDL while they’re portrayed as ‘the baddies’ and the UAF ‘the goodies’; some of the nastiest fascists I’ve had the misfortune to read have written for UAF blogs. No opposition movement will be effective until millions of Brits are marching on Whitehall.

Yet another ‘sleb’ has been awarded a privacy injunction by the High Court. On one hand, I don’t give a sh”t what they get up to but, on the other, I do mind that our libel laws are being misused and privacy laws tightened as a result. The next thing you know it will be against the law for the press to disclose details of MPs’ expenses. Continental Europe, of course, has quite draconian privacy and libel laws – perhaps it’s just more ‘harmonisation’.

After Crispin Blunt’s revelation that he’s “been living a lie” after twenty years of marriage and two children we now have a Cabinet Minister threating legal action against the msm if they re-print accusations. Hmm… it can only be William Hague.

Paul Kenny, Gen.Sec of the GMB has said it will withdraw funding from the Labour Party if either David Milliband or Ed Balls is elected Party Leader. Good.

The comments to this article worry me. I’m not a believer in capital punishment – I don’t believe in an eye for an eye or blood money (that’s the Shari’a way). What we need is something we don’t have and haven’t had for the past thirty years: an effective judicial system with appropriate punishment – life must mean life. There mustn’t be shorter sentences for pleading guilty in a police station, no time off for good behaviour, no automatic shortening of sentences by a half – just get rid of the common purpose/third way claptrap. The comments are a prime example of the pendulum swinging and unless Cameron pays attention it will get worse.

I think I’ve already played Ralph Reader’s Gang Show singing ‘We’re Riding Along on the Crest of a Wave’ but I can’t find ‘Here we are, here we are, here we are again’ on YouTube. I suppose they just don’t have my sense of humour – it’s probably just as well but I do like a bit of satirical visual or audio humour to go with the posts if poss so this will have to do instead. Come on, workers! The government needs you – we’re all in this together:

I’m going back to my flooded kitchen and splattering tap now. Why is it that when things go wrong they go wrong at the same time? This morning the coffee maker overflowed on to the floor; the dishwasher packed up (it’s now in the middle of the floor with a monkey wrench, a bucket and several old towels) and I had to take a pair of pliers and white vinegar to the cold tap. I’ve cut back the perennials around the arch again because the gardener seems to think he needn’t bother with me – note to self: don’t be so pleasant & give extra cash in future. I’ve de-potted plants and distributed them amongst my neighbours and hacked back the hibiscus; I’ve shredded documents, flossed the cats and fandangled the ferrets. Perhaps it’s time I thought about getting a man in.

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>Surprise, surprise, there’s some disquiet within the EU at the moment; I don’t know how these muppets ever thought such a project would work. For muppets read delusional and traitorous b@st@rds.

Poland isn’t happy; the Czech Republic isn’t happy; neither is Hungary nor Slovakia. And those are just the governments. Germany is squabbling with France over Sarkozy’s proposal to create a designated EU humanitarian relief fund (The European Union Natural Disaster Rapid Relief Fund – EUNDRRF. Is anyone managing to keep track of all these abbreviations?)

I think the only government not making waves at the moment is our own – perhaps Cameron, like Blair, sees himself as a future President. Let’s see what he does with the EU’s proposal to raise the British contribution to their budget to £10.3bn by 2013.

EU Foreign Minister, Cathy Ashton, is to speak on behalf of the EU at the UN. Apparently Cameron won a ‘concession’ here – she’ll only be allowed to speak in the General Council and not the Security Council. It always goes the same way – give a centimetre and they take a kilometre.

Speaking of kilometres, road pricing across Europe, “for the sake of the environment”, seems to be on the cards but that shouldn’t come as a surprise given the number of surveillance cameras already lining our roads.

I think I’ve already mentioned Italy’s proposal to extend expulsion (aka deportation) to EU nationals as well as the Roma in France but it’s worth repeating if only to draw attention to the way politicians play with words.

It pays to riot in the EU says Evans-Pritchard and I think he has a point. Ireland, which abided by the rules, is paying more for its borrowings than Greece, which did not.

Thanks to Open Europe for this link. Five activists from the group Désobéissance Civile Belgique occupied a crane in the centre of Brussels to protest against the Lisbon Treaty, which they said “rejects the European member states and has been ratified without consulting the citizens”. They attached a banner to the crane criticising the “antidemocratic movement” of the EU. They also argued that no referendum has been held on the euro and that EU President Herman Van Rompuy was elected without elections. Good for them – that’s five more up a crane in Brussels than there are in Great Britain.

Open Europe also reports that the EU wants to set up a database to fight “radicalisation”, noting that it should target not just terrorists, but also the far left, the far right, and anti-globalisation activists

My eye and Betty Martin“EU citizens favour stronger European economic governance. 75% of Europeans are in favour of giving the EU a stronger role in the co-ordination of member states’ economic and budgetary policies.”

The German Constitutional Court has strengthened the ECJ and Lisbon Treaty. “EU decisions may only be checked if European institutions seriously overstep their powers” . I wonder what ‘Common Purpose’ is in German?

This looks promising: 86m euros and 750 ‘citizens’ could “launch a devastating cyber attack on the EU.” It’s time to raid the piggy-bank, folks.

>England is the most over-crowded country in the EU. I tend to think that when things like this hit the msm news it’s because they’re incontrovertible and avoiding mentioning isssues like this would cast doubt on the integrity and veracity of the media (*cough*).

England now has a density of 402.1 people per sq.km while lucky old Scotland has only 67.(click to enlarge)

The figures are for the last full year of the Labour Government and raise serious questions over the effectiveness of its flagship points based system that was introduced to curb immigration. It also means more than three million foreign nationals were added to the British population under Labour’s watch since 1997. Separate figures showed student visas have increased by a third renewing fears the route is being exploited as a loophole for both legal and illegal immigration. The number of migrants allowed to the stay permanently also increased by a third while grants of asylum (4,190) hit their highest level for seven years, according to figures from the Home Office and Office for National Statistics (ONS).

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."